“Often for the king, always for the public good.” — John Sheffield | V2Melody

“Often for the king, always for the public good.”

A brief claim that public duty outranked personal loyalty to the crown · Self-composed epitaph motto, Westminster Abbey

About John Sheffield

John Sheffield

8 September 1647–24 February 1721

John Sheffield, who became the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, lived from 8 September 1647 to 24 February 1721, though older records occasionally create uncertainty about dates because of the calendar conventions and genealogical habits of the period. He was a nobleman, naval officer, soldier, courtier…

More by John Sheffield

Poems by John Sheffield

More remarks by John Sheffield

“I took the liberty to represent to him what a ridiculous story it would make, should we return without fighting.”

Honour as public reputation rather than private fury · Memoir of his quarrel with the Earl of Rochester

“I yet dare confidently affirm it to be only that which is vulgarly though unjustly counted none at all, I mean Deism.”

Judging a king's religion as liveliness of mind rather than settled creed · Essay, A Character of Charles II

“I lived doubtful, not dissolute; I die unresolved, not unresigned. Ignorance and error are incident to human nature. I trust in an Almighty and All-good God.”

A courtier's last accounting of faith, doubt, and the limits of human knowledge · Self-composed epitaph, directed in his will